In your responses to peers, choose posts that present an article different from the one you presented in your initial post. What information presented in their posts do you find most interesting? After reviewing the article link they have provided, address one of the following:

• If they presented an article related to trends, how do you think the trend will impact external auditing in the future?
• If they presented an article related to an audit failure, do you agree or disagree with how the failure could have been avoided? What other suggestions do you have related to avoiding the failure?

The article that I chose was “Current Trends in Internal Audit”. As you can imagine by the name the article discusses the trends that are currently a part of the internal audit process. The authors did an excellent job at providing a timeline representing the evolution of internal auditing which can be seen below.

Evolutionary Trends of Internal Auditing:

1. Checking the accounting records-1950

2. Evaluation of conformity-1960

3. Examination of procedures-1970

4. Evaluation of controls-1980

5. Report on the internal control system-1990

6. Evaluation of the risk management system-2000

7. Improvement of the risk management system-2001

8. Reporting the activity performed-2002

9. Adding a value plus-2003

10. Consolidation of the internal audit-2004/2009

11. Capacity of managing financial risk-2010/2013

Additionally, the provided in depth details on each separate portion of evolution. Internal auditing has evolved a lot considering that initially internal audits focused on accounting problems whereas now internal auditing is so detailed that it is now tool used to identify the main risks of an organization and evaluate an organization’s activities. In reviewing all the details around each trend, I feel as though the evolution of internal auditors in general and their willingness to expand their scope of work is the most concerning trend. My primary reasoning behind this is the fact that traditionally there was a bigger focus on the functionality of an organization. However, now the focus seems to be more towards regulatory compliance and business process optimization. So now instead of properly balancing the process and keeping an eye on the bigger picture internal auditors are managing risks, prioritizing the goals and activities of an organization, eliminating complexity and redundancy, streamlining business operations, all while driving down cost and protecting and enhancing shareholder value.

Overall this article was right on track with my opinion on audit related trends. I have seen the difference between the internal auditors over the few years of my career and all the trends listed above as well as a few in between things seem to be spot on. It has been obvious that since I first started looking into Accounting that internal auditing was constantly changing. Then if you look from even the time that I graduated college to me currently as a working professional internal auditing processes have changed. This was a great article and a great source to provide more details around the various trends of today’s internal auditing.

References:

Metricstream. (2018). Five Key Trends in Internal Audit. Retrieved September 20, 2018, from https://www.metricstream.com/insights/five_trends_internal_audit.htm

Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, ISSN: 1877-0428, Vol: 116, Page: 2239-2242

Publication Year: 2014 https://www-sciencedirect-com.ezproxy.snhu.edu/science/article/pii/S1877042814005680?